


The Cute Ambiguously Gendered Mechanic

by cloudcastles



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 00:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2129427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudcastles/pseuds/cloudcastles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus Lupin's car breaks down outside a tiny cafe in the middle of nowhere. In this moment of desperation he is rescued by the local hot mechanic, who is none other than Sirius Black.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cute Ambiguously Gendered Mechanic

Remus looked up from his swiftly emptying cup of tea and peered through the café window. It had started to rain, unsurprisingly, and the windows were beginning to be covered in streams of water. He sighed and gulped down the last mouthful of tea before standing to leave. The rain didn’t particularly matter, as he was about to get back into his car where he could be sure to be dry and warm. But he didn’t particularly like driving in the rain. It made everything grey and slippery, neither of which were adjectives that he was fond of.

He nodded politely to the middle aged waitress as he left the small café. As the doorbell chimed behind him, he turned up the collar of his jacket and scrunched his nose, bracing himself for the onslaught of rain. Then, he jogged awkwardly to his car, throwing himself inside as quickly as possible. After briefly shaking the raindrops from his hair, he did up his seatbelt and turned the key in the ignition. The car did not make any noise. He tried again. The car still sat in obstinate silence, as if it too were protesting at the idea of driving through the rain.

“C’mon!” Remus groaned, trying again to get his car to start. This time, it made a horrible chugging groaning sound, much like a rugby team all vomiting simultaneously. Remus grimaced in concern, taking the key out of the ignition.

Slouching back in the car seat, Remus sighed, “Why did I have to stop? I could have kept going till Sheffield, but no. Had to stop for a cup of bloody tea.” He unbuckled his seat belt in defeat and sat for a moment to think about his options. He needed to be at his motel to check in at 2, and then he had to meet the school’s principal at 4. It was currently just past 11. Remus thought to himself that he could probably walk to Sheffield in just over 3 hours, but that probably wasn’t optimum. Neither was leaving his car stranded outside some tiny café in the pouring rain.

After considering sitting in defeat for 2 hours hoping for a miracle, Remus forced himself to leave his car and trudge back into the café. He shook himself off again upon entering, then looked around for someone that could help him. There was a ruddy-faced elderly man wearing a strange lumpy beanie in the corner, but otherwise, the café appeared empty. Remus approached the counter hopefully, trying to peer into the kitchen behind it to see if he could spot the waitress from before. Thankfully, she emerged a moment later with a plateful of poached eggs on toast.

“Be with you in a minute love,” she said as she passed, heading over to the beanie man. She served him his eggs then turned back towards Remus with a smile.

“’Ello love. Did you want another cuppa?” she asked, motioning to the kettle.

“No thanks - uh, I was actually hoping you could help me out. My car,” Remus paused to point out the beige Mini sitting in front of the café, “my car’s broken down, you see. And I have to get to Sheffield soon. Is there anyone that could fix it, do you think?”

“Oh, I see, love. That’s awful, especially in this weather!” she nodded to herself and smiled softly, “Tell you what, though. I think John could probably help. His garage’s just a minute down the road. I’ll give him a call, yeah?”

Remus nodded, then perched himself on a stool as he waited for the waitress to make the call. She turned her back to Remus then picked up a corded landline phone next to an equally aged microwave and dialled the number.

“Hi, John, listen, it’s Molly … Yes, Fabian’s sister … Yes, yes, he’s doing fine, love. Listen though, I’ve got this young bloke here whose car’s broken down in front the café … Yes …. Yes, do you think you could … Right. I’ll tell him …. Ok. Send Shirley my love. Bye.”

Molly turned back around to Remus and smiled again. “Ok, so John says he’ll send one of the boys down to just tow it down the road and they’ll fix it up good for you. Even got you a discount.”

“Oh, thank you! Thanks a lot.”

“No problem love. All part of my job. Village waitress is more like village aunt, that’s what I always say. You best wait here till he comes, yes? I’ll make you another cuppa.”

Remus tried to tell her that he didn’t need more tea, but she has already turned to start making some, so he gave up. He then turned his attention to look out the window for an approaching tow truck.

Just as Molly was setting down a new cup of tea next to Remus, he spotted the tow truck coming down the road.

“Oh, that’s the truck. Thank you again,” Remus said as he fished around in his pocket for his wallet to pay for his unwanted and undrunk tea.

However, Molly waved him off, shaking her head. “No need dear. You go deal with your car.”

Remus smiled tightly and offered his thanks before leaving hurriedly to go talk to the tow truck driver. He found the driver just getting out of the truck as he approached.

“Hey!” Remus called out to get the driver’s attention, “Hey! It’s my car you’re here to tow!” He jogged over to them, then held out his hand to shake.

Remus couldn’t quite tell what gender the driver was. They had long, curly black hair that was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and were wearing dark stovepipe jeans under an oversized neon orange safety jacket. They smiled lazily before slowly shaking Remus’ hand. Remus felt himself holding on for a fraction of a second too long, as he was distracted by the person’s smile.

“Hi. I’m Sirius. Which car is it?” he asked, looking at the few cars parked outside the café.

“The Mini,” Remus replied, pulling his jacket tighter around himself to as to not get rain on his woollen jumper.

“Right, ok. Shouldn’t take a sec. Chuck us your keys, then you can wait in the truck if you want, I can hook it up from here.”

“Oh, ok. Thanks,” Remus replied. He handed Sirius his keys, then headed over to the truck and tried to get in as gracefully as possible. Once inside, he briefly checked to see how soaked his hair was in the rear vision mirror. It wasn’t too bad, so Remus played with it to try and make the best of the situation. He wasn’t usually a particularly vain person, but one only gets meet cute ambiguously gendered mechanics every once in a while, so he thought he had better make the effort.

After a few minutes waiting in the passenger seat of the truck, and some accompanying clunking noises from the end of the truck, Sirius clambered into the driver’s seat.  He turned to Remus and grinned.

“Ok, let’s go get her fixed up then!” he fired up the engine and started down the road towards the workshop.

There was a moment of silence before Sirius spoke again. “So, where you from? Can’t be from round here, car’s too new,” he said with a cheeky wink.

Remus smiled despite himself at the comment. “I’m from Northampton. Just heading up to Sheffield on teaching placement.”

“Right. What do you teach?”

“Well, I’m hoping to teach Art History and English, but I think on this placement I’m doing Classical Studies of all things. Not sure why.”

“Hey, Classics is great! Greeks and Romans, lots of drama and war and blood and stuff. It was my best subject in school. Probably because the teacher didn’t mind that I missed half the lessons cos I was out working at the shop,” Sirius said as he pulled the truck to a stop outside the car workshop.

Sirius leant over Remus and grabbed a pile of folded papers from the glove compartment. He winked again and then announced, “Here we are then. Hop out and we’ll have a look at her.”

The two both walked around the truck to the back, and stood back to inspect the car. “So what was the problem with her again?”

“Well, I tried to start it and it didn’t make any noise. Then I tried again and it made kind of a … noise from hell. And I was a bit scared it was gonna blow up or something.”

Sirius looked at Remus in disbelief for a moment then burst out laughing. This started Remus off as well, and they both stood chuckling and wheezing at the situation for slightly too long.

After his laughter died down, Sirius explained, “I doubt it would have blown up. Considering we don’t live in a James Bond film or anything. Much to my disappointment. I think I’d make a great Bond girl.”

Remus chuckled at this, and Sirius grinned wider. “Nah, it’s probably something I can fix easily. You in any kinda rush?”

Remus inspected his watch briefly, then answered, “I have to be in Sheffield in about 2 and half hours.”

“Ok. No problem. 2 hours to find the miracle cure. You wanna wait here or have a look around the buzzing metropolis of Brimington for a while?”

“Uh, I think I’ll wait here if that’s ok.”

Sirius nodded. “We’ve got some magazines over by those seats I think. Sadly no free wifi. John, the owner, he’s a stubborn old bugger. Doesn’t quite understand the internet yet.”

“That’s alright. You need a hand with the-?“ Remus gestured at his car.

“No, I got it. Take these papers and fill them out, though. You just sit pretty over there, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Ok,” Remus replied. He took the papers then turned and paced over to the waiting area.

 _Sit pretty. Is that just a saying? Or is he calling me pretty? Well, if he is a he. Is Sirius a guy’s name? Seems like it would be_ , Remus thought to himself as he fished around in his pockets for a pen. He then busied himself filling out the insurance and car information. This took him almost half an hour what with trying to find the right information through the weak 3G internet and trying to make his handwriting seem both flirty and easy to read at the same time. Remus was prone to overthinking and idealising everything, so whilst he understood that it was likely that the winking et cetera was probably just part of Sirius’ personality, he reasoned that he may as well try his hardest to be flirtatious back. Remus’ world, this meant making his W’s extra swirly and his phone number very clear and bold.

After he had finished filling the forms out, Remus looked around to see where Sirius and his car had got to. His car was sitting only a few metres away, and he could spy Sirius’ backside poking out from under the hood. He had taken off the oversized jacket, and this allowed for a perfect view of the shape of his arse. Remus chuckled quietly at the sight, trying to ignore the parts of him that wanted to get a better look at Sirius in that position.

He cleared his throat then called out, “Any luck?”

Sirius’ head poked out from underneath the hood and he raised his eyebrows. “Yeah but it’s not good,” he replied, pacing over towards Remus, “You wanna hear it?”

“Shit, what is it?” Remus asked, standing up in concern.

Sirius shook his head and sighed, “Your flux capacitor’s fried. And we haven’t got a replacement.”

“My flux- Wait …” Remus eyed Sirius suspiciously, “That’s from Back to the Future. Flux capacitors don’t exist.”

Sirius bit his lip and snorted, then held up a small white and silver device that Remus didn’t recognise. “Very true, and well done. Nobody has actually gotten that before. I only say it to the customers that don’t look like they’ll rip my head off if I fuck with them … cracks me up every time.”

“You’re a little bit of a dick,” Remus said, shaking his head.

Sirius shrugged. “Yeah, a little. But I did find what was wrong.”

“Oh?”

“This little thing is your answer,” Sirius said as he held up the device, “it’s a spark plug. Makes the ignition go, car go vroom vroom.”

Remus chuckled, and said, “So can you fix it? Make car go vroom vroom?”

“Already have. Replaced the ones that were fried. You wanna check that it works?”

Remus nodded, “Thank you!”

“Hey, don’t thank me yet. I could have messed it up even worse. Give it a go first,” Sirius handed Remus the keys and gestured over to the car. Remus took the keys then clambered in, folding his long limbs into the small space. He nervously turned the key in the ignition, and to his surprise, the car sputtered to life. Cheering triumphantly Remus grinned at Sirius before he turned the key again to stop the engine. He got out of the car again and headed back over towards Sirius.

“Thank you so much. You’re a life saver. I was considering walking to Sheffield before the waitress called you guys,” Remus explained.

Sirius laughed, then replied, “Molly? Oh she’s lovely. She’s like another mum, I swear. Makes too much tea though. Did she try and give you a discount on our services?”

Remus nodded in trepidation. “Was she not supposed to?”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, it’s just she does for everyone who even mentions the shop. Makes John’s wife go mad. But I think - I _think_ \- that your insurance should cover this. They’ll send you a letter if it doesn’t, then the little debt collector devils will come round with little red pitchforks. But it should be fine,” he said, taking the pile of forms from Remus, “I think you’re free to go then. But really, you should come back for a check-up more often. I’d be happy to do one for you now, actually.”

“Oh, I should be going. Got to set up everything for the job,” Remus said.

“Sure, sure. But I mean it, you should come back this way. I’ll do the check-up free, no forms or anything, just me.”

“You would? Your boss would let you?” Remus asked.

“Hey, he can’t say no to this face,” Sirius said, pulling a mock puppy face.

Remus sniggered, then nodded. “Sure. Yeah, I’ll swing by on the weekend then. Won’t say no.”

“See? Works every time, the Sirius puppy face,” Sirius bounced his eyebrows at Remus and winked again.

Remus smiled in response then turned to go. In his mind, he was running over the myriad of ways he could try to ask for Sirius’ number. _Could I get your number? Hey, I should grab your number. Can I call you? Do you wanna-_

His train of thought was interrupted by Sirius’ hand on his elbow. He turned from facing his car door to look at Sirius expectantly.

“Sorry, I just, well,” Sirius started to say, “I was just wondering if I could get your number? For, uh, maybe setting up buying you dinner? Or endless cups of tea supplied by Molly? I promise there’s more to me than neon jackets and Back to the Future references.”

Remus smiled softly and felt his cheeks start to go red. “My number’s on the insurance forms. I should really get yours though.”

Sirius’ eyes widened and he nodded enthusiastically. “Sure, um, let me get a pen -“ He searched in his pockets for a pen, then wrote his number in messy handwriting on Remus’ hand. Remus inspected it and grinned.

“Ok. I’ll text you once my life is sorted a bit. Are you eating tonight?”

Sirius frowned in confusion for a moment. “Uh, yes? Oh, you mean do I have plans? No. But I’d like to?”

“Good. In Sheffield? You like curry?”

“Love it. Eat nothing else,” Sirius replied eagerly.

“Ok. Good. I’ll see tonight then,” Remus said, allowing his eyes to linger for a moment on Sirius lips before getting into his car.

“See you. Drive safe.”                            

Remus nodded, then pulled out of the workshop and on to the road. When he looked behind the car in the rear view mirror, he could see Sirius standing and waving to him from the footpath. He was grinning, and his grubby t-shirt had lifted to show off his snail-trail lined stomach. Remus smiled to himself, and kept flicking his eyes back to the rear view mirror until he lost sight of Sirius all together. As he tuned the radio to a local station, he looked at the blue ink scrawl on his hand in contentment. Maybe this teaching placement wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading! Let me know if you want more of this AU :)
> 
> I was inspired by this post on Tumblr for it http://quentincoldwater.tumblr.com/post/92269898358/offers-other-person-the-second-twix-at-a-bus-stop
> 
> Cheers!


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